I’ve worked the sales side both in stores and repping a line or lines (not fashion, but the issues are the same.) I am also more a “worker bee/maker” type but learned to be good at sales.

Jeez Louise…the “Boss” in the story above should immediately fire the rep who blew off calling the account and hire a rep or group who is more responsive. It’s bad enough the account was missed to begin with, but to have the rep out and out refuse to make the effort AFTER the client noticed–I’ve never worked in a sales situation where that would be acceptable. Maybe fashion is special?

That aside, speaking as a former inventory/merchandising manager (basically a buyer) And as a former rep (both house and indy commission group), here’s my take:

You’re company info, history, vision, etc. is not useful sales information. It’s marketing. If that info gets public play, great! The best marketing is free marketing.

The “story” MIGHT be of slight, passing interest to an end customer–the person who is going to purchase your item in a store…but it’s not going to make her buy. It’s not going to make store buyers buy. Period. Customers who DO make buying decisions based on the producer’s “story” are buying fair trade goods at 10,000 Villages.

People buying boutique fashion items are involved in creating their own, personal narrative- of success or attractiveness or sexiness or competence …or whatever–it’s all about how the clothes make them feel…It’s ALL about THEM. Not you. Never you. It’s not even about the buyer. It’s about what makes the store customer shell out the dough and take a thing home. Think about it: Aside from work done by friends you admire, do YOU care about a garment’s “story?”

That narrative arc–your beginnings, inspirations, the history of your business, etc., is only interesting when someone writes a book or article about your brilliant career after you no longer need the publicity.

About sales reps: The whole retail environment is changing drastically. The big ACCOUNTS are what matter most to sales reps. Those are the people they knock themselves out to court and accomodate. The big LINES –the lines they can;t afford to lose–are second. Everything else is just gravy. Incremental sales…a few upticks in their commission payments.

Retail has consolidated into a few giant mega players with centralized buying in a few key markets and lots and lots of tiny retailers that no-one has time to visit. Those tiny players–the very ambitious ones–have carved out very specific niches and are going to showrooms or trade shows once or twice a year to be presented with an overwhelming amount of information, merchandise and, usually, not particularly favorable (for them) terms. If the buyer is not a “player” she is probably getting LESS attention from the rep than you are as a manufacturer.

The only thing I ever found useful as a rep in mining the potential of a line or an account was good sales reporting. It was hard, if not impossible to come by more often than not. I looked at reports religiously to determine what was shipping and where. If you are a house rep, you MIGHT get those reports in a timely fashion. If you read them, they can give you an idea of the potential of a line and where you might push more product next season out.

However, in commission groups, indivual reps probably never see that information. It never makes it past the group Principal’s desk. The principal may or may not use it to determing who in the group gets how much commission or bonus, but my guess is, the reps in most groups don’t see it until, maybe, the end of the season, only if they ask and then they’re looking mainly to make sure they didn’t get screwed on commission. (which happens a lot. Inventory management/sales reporting is rife with errors.)

Buyers at big accounts are dealing with so many lines and skus that THEY don’t notice a specific line or product unless it does something remarkable–it totally tanks or customers start begging for it and there’s no product to be had. In smaller fashion lines, this is a recipe for disaster, I would imagine. In more mass-market, less time-sensitive goods, you have time to build up a record of turns for a sku through re-orders over several seasons. You can then use that history to tell buyers they need to increase initial buy-in quantities of a particular line next season out. We don’t even want to get started on how helpful being able to figure out which accounts are reordering what items through wholesalers and where the stuff ships to so you can establish sales history and trends to figure out how to sell that line better in the future. If the fashion industry has figured out how to do this, you guys are way ahead of lots of other industries selling consumer goods that are time and season sensitive.

A question: Are you expecting your reps to sell or are you expecting them to do your marketing for you?

Most reps DO see their job mainly as getting orders. If they are repping several lines, they need to learn a little bit about a whole lot of merchandise every selling season–enough to be able to present the MERCHANDISE to potential buyers and to tell those buyers why they should devote buying dollars and expensive retail square footage to your product.

A rep’s enthusiasm for your vision or history or even for the objective beauty of your product is NOT going to overcome buyer resistance–and your reps, whatever their other failings, know this much. So you need to provide that rep with the infrormation that can help buyers decide to invest in your line.

It’s not really the rep’s –or the retailer’s- business to create markets or to position your product or even to create buzz about it. They assume that you have already staked out your niche, positioned your line and marketed it to consumers in some fashion–ads, press, fashion shows, trunk sales, etc.

Sales reps need to be able to tell buyers technical information about the product. They need to know what kind of marketing support you have put behind your product. They need to know pertinent and helpful sales history on your products in past seasons that indicates that a buyer really, really has an excellent chance of good sell-through. Buyers careers–whole retail departments–entire stores, even chains–live and die on product sell through - or lack of it.

What sets your product apart and makes it irresistable to consumers? Price? Value? Luxury? Exclusivity? Trendiness?

That’s the kind of info your reps need to be able to communicate to buyers–preferably in 100 words or less. With the best visual aids you can provide. Buyers are busy, sometimes insanely so, and often incredibly stressed. They work on a need to know basis, more often than not and they are pushing product in accordance with THEIR store’s vision, with one eye always on the bottom line. Good reps know this and “sell” accordingly–if they don’t, buyers will simply stop seeing them.

My friend that also manufactures says the same thing every time I moan about my sales reps. She says, “I have two words for you: Corporate Sales Rep.” I am convinced that is the best way to go. After bugging my sales reps about Barney’s NY over and over again, I just called the myself and got a huge order. The reps didn’t even have a reason why they didn’t contact them. Then they of course wanted my contact there, presumably to get their other lines in. But I digress….Corporate Reps usually need a base salary. This is a problem for DE’s. To acquire someone good who has the contacts you need, you are probably looking at paying out a lot of money.